Spanish Grammar in a Simple Way.
What is a Verb, a Substantive or an Adjective exactly?
All students can perfectly use the grammatical rules of their own language, but some of them find difficult to understand what is a substantive or an adjective or what is exactly the difference between them. Spanish grammar can be explained in a simple and straight forward way. If you are thinking in studying another language, there is no need to give up such idea because of grammar, you only have to be familiar with some basic grammar concepts. Even more, this familiarization with the Spanish grammar may end up giving you also a wider knowledge and understanding of the grammar of your own language. It can be fun!
Substantive, verb, adjective…what is the meaning of all this? I have no clue. Do not worry, it is no so difficult, keep on reading and you will see why. Here you have Spanish grammar in a simple way:
What is a noun or a Substantive?
It is a word that identifies an object, person or abstract idea: casa , house, mesa , table, tomate , tomato, coche , car, mujer , woman, hombre , man, perro , dog, amor , love, paz , peace, trabajo , work, etc. In Spanish substantives can be classified as follow: masculines ( tomate, coche, hombre, amor , trabajo ), with the masculine article “el” “the”. Feminine ( casa, mesa, mujer, paz ), with the feminine article “la” ”the”.
An article is a word that goes with the substantive and indicates if its masculine or feminine.
El coche The car
La tienda The shop
What is an Adjective?
It is a word that describes a substantive, it explains how a thing is: bonito , nice, feo , ugly, grande , big, azul , blue, curioso , funny, interesante , interesting, etc. A lot of adjectives change depending on the substantive they accompany:
Coche bonito Nice car
Casa bonita Nice house
But some others do not change: libro interesante , interesting book, novela interesante , interesting novel.
What is a Verb?
It is an action or an activity; it is the most important information of the sentence. In Spanish the verb tells us who is doing the action: comer , to eat, trabajar , to work, vivir , to live, estudiar , to study, bailar , to dance, dormir , to sleep, esperar , to wait, etc.
José vive en Nerja. John lives in Nerja
Antonia trabaja en el supermercado de la esquina. Antonia works in the supermarket of the corner
Chris estudia español en esta escuela. Chris studies Spanish in this school
What is a Preposition?
Usually it is a small word (one or two syllables) that goes before a complement that defines a place: en la calle, in the street; or a time: a las dos de la tarde, at two in the afternoon.
What is a Pronoun?
It is a word that can stand for a noun:
He comprado un libro , I have bought a book, lo he comprado , I have bought it
Tengo tu carpeta , I have your folder, la tengo , I have it